My Year in 500 Words or Less

When I think about 2011, I feel tired. We started over in a new city in a new country with a new language and spent most of the year making new friends and trying new things. So much newness can be exhausting.

If you’re like me, every year you receive at least five letters from friends summarizing their year and touting the accomplishments of each family member. I’ve never sent out a letter like those, written in the third person, but receiving them this year made me think about what I would write-- about myself in particular. What have I accomplished this year?

“This year, Lisa changed 2200 diapers, cooked 900 meals, drank 800 cups of coffee, and did 520 loads of laundry.”

The thing is, I’m a stay at home mom. The things I accomplish are rarely noticed, often taken for granted and never bragged about (except by my mom. Hi Mom!) But what I do have to show for all my hard work is a well-fed husband in clean clothes doing a great job at work, and three handsome boys, who are charming, brilliant, confident and joyful.

I am happy I was able to spend another year at home with my boys, watching them grow and change before my eyes, being there for every new discovery, milestone and creation, helping them film videos like this one, inspired by the most annoyingly addictive Muppet song and born from Jacob’s imagination.

Benjy’s line is “I’ve been wanting to do that for years,” but this is the best delivery that Jacob could coax out of him. It’s hard to work with amateurs.

I received 3,142 kisses and 5,786 hugs, and I was declared “Best Mommy Ever” at least 79 times.

On top of that, I wrote 134 blog posts and hopefully made people laugh at least a few times. I was published in one magazine. I made three Halloween costumes, improved my Spanish and crossed an international border at least 400 times.

I also saw a bullfight, went to a water park, went to a Luche Libre match, went to Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and Legoland, saw The Tonight Show live, and spent three glorious days in Las Vegas.

Most importantly, I spent 365 days teaching little boys how to be responsible, hard-working men who care about others and the world around them.

So here’s to 2012. A year spent in the same city of the same country with the same language with some of the same friends and doing the same things. 

I like the way that sounds. For a year, anyway.